LibGuides: English & Comparative Literature Research Guide: Books & Ebooks

Find Books/Ebooks in the Pollak Library & Beyond

Find books/ebooks, articles, audio, video, and other media from all CSU Libraries. Sign in to request books from Pollak, other CSU libraries, and via Illiad Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Research the collections of more than 50,000 libraries worldwide, including the collections of the Pollak Library.

A comprehensive index of one million+ full-text books. Powerful full-text search.

Search the catalog & access the digital collections of The Library of Congress, the largest library in the U.S..

Internet Archive
"A digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form...free access to researchers, historians, scholars, the print disabled, and the general public... to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge."

Millions of monographs digitized from libraries worldwide. Free, plus (paid) member-organization only access to content.

Project Gutenberg offers "the world's great literature... with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired."

Play Index This link opens in a new window
Provides citations for over 30,000 plays written from Antiquity to the present and published from 1949 to present. Play Index includes plays written in, or translated into, English. Search for plays by title, author, subject, style, genre, cast type, and more. Play Index does not provide the full-text of the play, but click 'Find this play in a book,' or the 'Find It' button to locate a copy of the play.
ACLS Humanities E-book This link opens in a new window
Database accessible via Fulcrum website. E-books in the humanities, including history, literature, religion, art history, women's studies, area studies, political science and philosophy. Historical periods include most parts of the world and most time periods.
Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Early English Books Online (EEBO) is the definitive online collection of early printed works in English, and works printed in England, making digital copies of over 146,000 titles from before 1700 discoverable through an interface tailored for early modern scholars. No other resource for early modern scholarship is as comprehensive as Early English Books Online. Users can explore complete, digitized images of all the works listed in these key bibliographic records of English literature: The Short-Title Catalogue (Pollard & Redgrave, 1475-1640); The Short-Title Catalogue II (Wing, 1641-1700); The Thomason Tracts; and the Early English Books Tract Supplements, as well as original almanacs, pamphlets, musical scores, prayer books and other intriguing primary sources.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Provides digital access to English and foreign language titles printed in the United Kingdom and the Americas during the 18th century.

Search Examples

Keyword Search Examples

Bernard Shaw and scholarship
Bernard Shaw and literary theories

Marxism and Bernard Shaw
Feminism and Bernard Shaw

Agency and philosophy

Class and Mrs Warren's Profession
(Class or gender) and Mrs. Warren's Profession

(Sexism or gender) and Pygmalion
Class and Pygmalion

African American History
African American Folklore

Subject Search

Subjects (or Subject Headings) Examples

Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950 -- Criticism and interpretation
Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950 -- Political and social views

Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950 -- Characters

Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Man and Superman
Major Barbara
Pygmalion

Social Classes in Literature
Feminism in Literature

African Americans -- Folklore
African Americans -- History

Library of Congress Classification Outline

Library of Congress Classification Outline
The Library of Congress (LC) classification scheme attempts to organize knowledge into the A-Z classes. Most U.S. libraries follow this scheme to organize / provide access to books. Take a look at this beautiful architecture: the letters and titles of the main LC classes.

P -- Language and Literature
PR -- English Literature

English & Comparative Literature Research Guide: Books & Ebooks